Indeterminacy 39

Two wooden boxes containing Oriental spices and
foodstuffs arrived from India. One was for David
Tudor, the other for me. Each of us found, on
opening his box, that the contents were all mixed
up. The lids of containers of spices had somehow
come off. Plastic bags of dried beans and palm sugar
had ripped open. The tin lids of cans of chili
powder had come off. All of these things were
mixed with each other and with the excelsior which
had been put in the box to keep the containers in
position. I put my box in a corner and simply
tried to forget about it. David Tudor, on
the other hand, set to work. Assembling
bowls of various sizes, sieves of about eleven
various-sized screens, a pair of tweezers,
and a small knife, he began a process which
lasted three days, at the end of which time
each spice was separated from each other, each
bean from each other, and the palm sugar lumps
had been scraped free of spice and excavations
in them had removed embedded beans. He
then called me up to say, “Whenever you want
to get at that box of spices you have,
let me know. I’ll help you.”

- John Cage